California Driver Arrested For Driving Under Influence Of Caffeine

Before you decide to stop at the Starbucks drive-thru for a cup of coffee to ease your morning commute, think again: a California man was slapped with a DUI charge after a blood test revealed that he had caffeine in his system.

You read that right. Joseph Schwab was on his way home from work when an officer from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control pulled him over for driving erratically. She performed a breathalyzer test on Schwab, which confirmed that he had not been drinking.

The encounter should have ended there, right? Wrong. The agent then placed Schwab under arrest so that she could take him to jail and do a blood test to see if he was hopped up on any other drug. Schwab came back clean on every single illicit chemical they could test for, and the only â€śdrugâ€ť that was found in his system was caffeine.

In a mind-numbing twist, California police decided to charge Schwab with a DUI.

â€śIâ€™ve never seen this before, Iâ€™ve never even heard of it,â€ť Stacey Barrett, Schwabâ€™s attorney, told The Guardian.

â€śI have not been provided with any evidence to support a theory of prosecution for a substance other than caffeine at this time. Nor have I received any statements, reports, etc. documenting any ongoing investigation since the report dated 18 November 2015,â€ť Barrett added.

Now, Schwab is hoping to have the case dismissed, noting that it has had severe ramifications on both his personal and professional life.